Data storage devices such as hard disk drives are utilized for non-volatile data storage in a wide variety of data processing systems. In a magnetic disk storage device, a storage disk comprises a substrate made from a non-magnetic material, such as aluminum or glass, which is coated with one or more thin layers of magnetic material. In operation, data is read from, and written to, tracks of a magnetic storage disk using a magnetic head that includes a read sensor and write element. In general, a storage device includes a preamplifier that is configured to drive a read sensor in the magnetic head to read data from a magnetic storage disk and amplify the read data, as well as drive a write element in the magnetic head to write data to the storage disk. Moreover, a storage device includes a recording channel that is configured to decode read data that is received from the preamplifier, and encode write data that is to be written to the storage disk. Communication between the preamplifier and the recording channel is implemented using an analog bus and a digital bus, for example. A conventional analog bus comprises a plurality of analog signal lines, which enable high-speed transmission of analog read and write data signals between the recording channel and the preamplifier. Each analog signal line is a dedicated line that transmits either read data or write data. Further, a conventional digital bus implements a three wire serial port comprising a clock signal line, a data line, and an enable line, which serves to transmit digital control signals for setup and status monitoring of configuration registers located within the preamplifier. Other digital control functions that require dedicated digital control lines and which cannot tolerate the polling and latency characteristic of the serial port are transmitted on a bit-significant basis on additional dedicated control bus lines. These conventional communication schemes are inefficient in terms of the number of signal lines that are required to transmit data and control signals between the recording channel, preamplifier, and a controller.